BTN- First Fleet

This Video was about London in the 1700’s, jails were full of people who were poor, hungry, unwanted and they stole to survive. If you stole an apple and a few pieces of clothing you might even end up with a death sentence. The laws were very strict. Britain had colonies in Africa and America were they used to send the criminals. But then the Americans said that they wouldn’t take anymore criminals. So Britain decided that they would now use Transportation as a punishment. They shipped the criminals off to Australia and that was the First Fleet. Kids as young as 9, maybe even younger, travelled on the first fleet to Australia. There were 11 ships: 6 filled with convicts, 2 navy ships and 3 full with food supplies. The convicts on the ships weren’t very hopeful. More than 700 convicts were packed onto the crowded ships. Including about 17 kids. A lot of the convicts were sick when they boarded. Ships sailed from Portsmouth on May 13 1787. They took 2 stops on the way and arrived in Bottony Bay on January 19 1788.